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By Richard Hamilton, April 6, 2009 11:13 am

I twitter (tweet). I love it! In fact, I am sending a tweet right now. I have even posted about the potential of Twitter here at epic. But, there is a bit of truth is this twitter parody.

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By Richard Hamilton, March 30, 2009 12:08 pm

TV still dominates viewable media, but young people want more social media options. Read more at ReadWriteWeb.

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By Richard Hamilton, January 7, 2009 2:30 am

The incomparable Quincy Jones made an appearance on Last Call With Carson Daly tonight. In addition to discussions of Quincy’s amazing life and body of work, the subject of politics briefly came up. Carson suggested that Quincy would be an excellent candidate to be the US’s first Secretary of Culture. Quincy added that music from the US is found all over the world, yet we are one of the few countries without a Secretary of Culture, and we need one.

Here is what they misunderstand about culture (and more specifically, the arts): it is precisely because we do not have a Secretary of Culture, that our music dominates the world scene. The arts are not a top-down endeavor. American political imperialism is fading, yet American culture still thrives. Now I would agree that this is unfortunately often to the detriment of native arts. Somehow, the arts are one of the few facets of life we have managed to keep relatively pure. (I obviously don’t have cookie-cutter, ex-Disney types in mind. I’m actually talking about culture and art) And when the government (and our neighbors) shackle real culture, those fully invested find a way to free it. When meddlesome cooperates kill a medium, artist create a new one. When it no longer works this way, culture dies.

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By Richard Hamilton, January 6, 2009 10:16 pm

I read through this year’s Golden Globe nominations…they stink. I feel confidently saying most awards are given to worthless films and trendy actors. So, here are my picks from 2008.

Best Drama: Seven Pounds

Best Superhero Flick: Iron Man
(Honorable Mention: The Incredible Hulk)

Best Action Film: Quantum of Solace

Best Documentary: Helvetica (I know it came out it 2007, but I didn’t find out about it until last year.)

Best Animated Film: WALL-E

Best Comedy: An American Carol

Best Sequel: The Dark Knight

Internet Release: The Echo

Best Actor: Heath Ledger

Best Actress: Natalie Portman (what can I say…I’m a sucker.)

Best Director: Jon Favreau

Most Visually Exciting: The Dark Knight

Best Film: Iron Man

Worst Film: Wanted

Most Personally Disappointing: A tie between The Clone Wars and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Film I Was Most Surprised I Liked: The Incredible Hulk

(I thought about writing a explanation/defense for each selection, but decided instead to let them speak for themselves.)

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By Richard Hamilton, September 19, 2008 3:32 pm

There is an article on nytimes.com today titled, “In Japan, Buddhism May Be Dying Out”. According to Norimitsu Onishi, Buddhism is loosing its appeal to the Japanese because it is seem as a religion of the dead, not the living.

While the message of Christianity should be one of life and resurrection, I wonder if we aren’t running the same risk sometimes.

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By Richard Hamilton, July 13, 2008 3:27 pm

The French have long fancied themselves as a bastion of tolerance. This, however seems to be far from the truth. The French adherence to secularity has led to some seemingly intolerant policy. In February 2004, they passed a school ban on religious ware like burqas, yarmulkes, crucifixes and turbans. Most recently, they decided “the burqa is incompatible with French nationality” and are not allowing a 32 year-old woman from Morocco, Faiza M., to become a citizen. They said she “adopted a religious practice incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes.” This woman as a French husband and 3 native born French children.
There are no doubt many evangelicals who think it is incredible that this Muslim woman turned away by France. To do so, in addition to being generally ignorant and quite unlike Jesus, is to misunderstand the France’s intention. The French are committed to secularity, not tolerance. Secularity is blindly intolerant of all things dubbed religious. Many American Theocrats would gladly swap the Frances Secularity for their own particular brand of faith (make no mistake, Secularity is very much a faith/religion). Be careful. The tide can quickly change and today’s acceptable practices can become tomorrow’s marginalized religion.

It concerns me that so many American Christians seem to want our government to function as an arm of their church. A Secular government is obviously not the answer. I’m not sure is a neutral government is even possible, although it seems to me to be preferable. For now, I am challenged by the words of Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Oh to have a government that sought the same.

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By Richard Hamilton, December 8, 2007 2:56 pm

Christmas is fast approaching and it is easy to lose sight of what is important over the holiday season. It seems to be that more and more people are spending more and more money earlier and earlier in the year. I heard on the radio the other week that Americans spent 8% more this year on “Black Friday” then they did last year. It seems some people even go into debt to give the “perfect” gift. I wonder what our world would be like if people decided to spend less money on Christmas gifts and invest more time in the people around them.

I was in San Diego for the National Outreach Convention in November and got a chance to hear Rick McKinley from the Imago Dei Community speak. One thing he mentioned was the Advent Conspiracy. The basic idea is people spend less on Christmas, give relational gifts, and give their money to a good cause (in this case, making clean water available to those in need around the world).

Maybe instead of giving useless junk, no one needs as gifts this year; we can be a little more thoughtful and come up with meaningful ways to give.

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By Richard Hamilton, July 6, 2007 2:56 pm

Transformers was on the top of my “Must See” list of summer movies. I have been a fan of Transformers (primarily the cartoon) since my childhood.

For those of you not familiar with the Transformers franchise, I will give a brief history. In 1984, a line of toys was launched. To promote these new toys, they also started TV Cartoon and Comic Book series. I was four when this happened, and it was a significant childhood cultural phenomenon. The basic idea thought behind the toys and accompanying series involved alien robots who disguising themselves as earth machines, some bent on destroying humanity (the Decepticons), others on protecting it (the Autobots). Transformers had so much commercial success, other companies began importing similar toys into the US.

The Cartoon series ended in here 1987.

Needless to say, I was excited to hear Transformers would be on film.

The visual effects lived up to the hype. The bots looked amazing! The interplay between CGI and live actors was great. This film brought the cartoon to life. There were even a few tidbits of consistency with the original series thrown in for the geeks watching the film. For instance, Bumblebee (originally a VW Bug, who got a much needed overhaul and is a Camaro in the recent film) was still the first Autobot to encounter humans. The film also did a decent job filling in some of the blanks. Why do these alien robots look like common vehicles on earth? They have the ability to analyze and replicate machines they encounter, of course. The only drawback to the film was the goofy dialogue and predictable plot, minor inconveniences. The film was shot with a extremely dramatic feel, which the storyline just did not deliver.

The film came out the week of the Forth of July and scored nearly $153 million that week alone. But should you see it? There is a lot of violence (albeit digital robot violence), some strong language, and sexual tension between the leading actor and actress. It is rated PG-13 for a reason. I do not recommend you take your young children to see Transformers. But, any respectable child of the 80’s or Comic/Si-Fi/Action fan should check it out before it leaves the theaters.

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By Richard Hamilton, June 19, 2007 2:42 pm

It seems for many people anonymous confession is quite liberating and cathartic. Sometime back, I was at my friend Jordan Clark’s house when I discovered, what I thought at the time to be, an interesting coffee table book: Post Secret.

Basically, Post Secret is a community art project started by Frank Warren. People anonymously send original art, which reveals a secret, to Frank and he composes books and runs a blog to display them. Each week, Frank posts dozens of new pieces. So far there are the volumes of Post Secret with a forth scheduled for this October.

The art (a secrets behind them) range from funny to frightening. People have confessed social faux pas and criminal activity alike. While I have not submitted art to the project, I must admit I am enthralled in it. I find myself being consumed with the secrets of others. Anonymous confession seems to be a social phenomenon. People says thing on the web, under a pen name, that they would likely never say even to their closest confidant. Sometime back I stumbled across a site built off the Blue October song, “Hate Me” where people posted [mostly anonymous] apologies to those they have hurt. Of course I couldn’t find it when I sat down to type this post. You do not have to look hard to find a YouTube Video with the face in the shadows.

I guess this all leaves me asking, as a culture have we traded transparency for anonymity?

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By Richard Hamilton, April 23, 2007 10:48 pm

Living Responsibly: Somewhere Between Strip Malls and Carbon Credits April 23, 2007

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28 (NASB)

Subdue is not an ambiguous term. This Hebrew word is used to talk about conquest (Numbers 32:29) and even slavery (2 Chronicles 28:10). The question for us is, “how do we understand God’s mandate to ’subdue’ the earth, especially in light of Jesus’ teachings on stewardship?”

I think the problem for me is that the issue of environmental responsibility has become so polarized and politicized.

On one side are the radical environmentalists who quite often are more interested in redistribution of wealth and political gain than they are responsible living. It is difficult at best to say that enviro-friendly politicians like John Edwards (who’s family of 6 lives in a 28,000-square-foot mansion) or Al Gore (who averaged a monthly electricity bill of $1,359 for using 18,414 kilowatt-hours in 2006) are conservationists. Environmentalists have clearly picked their side (with much political power to gain). Which is more important, lower greenhouse gas emission or lower fossil fuel consumption? To the detriment of auto manufactures, environmentalists chose lower emission and now complain about fuel consumption. I believe decisions like this are politically motivated.

On the other side are the decadent consumption-ists. You do not have to look far to find them in American culture. Americans eat 815 billion calories of food each day, which is about 25%, more than needed. (I mention this only because it is the area of consumption that I struggle with the most) Since, the 50’s, the average American house size has more than doubled (more than 2,349 square feet, which is amplified since the size of families has decreased during the same period). The average American generates 52 tons of garbage by age 75. I’ve even read that there are more shopping malls than high schools in America (I was surprised anyone still goes to a shopping mall). Greed is the soup de jour.

Environmentalism can be just as much a scam as pop-Christian paraphernalia. For brevity sake, I site only three examples: Carbon offset credits. Catalytic converters. Hybrid cars. This however does not give us permission to live irresponsibly.

I don’t have it figured out, but I would love to see a positive non-partisan Christian movement of responsible living.culture